mtnovak Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 Wondering if anyone has been up on the north face of shuksan recently? I saw the post from a week ago and was wondering if anyone actually tried it or not? Curious what a little bit of snow may do to the route also, so if anyone has beta, lets hear it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 there must be a couple of inches of freshiez on it right now cause the whole summit pyramid as seen from abbotsford is white right now. if i had my digital here i'd post a picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 Dru, how unobstructed is your view of shuksan? Can you just see the top or a good portion of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necronomicon Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 I was hiking Goat Peak, across from the N. face of Shuksan, on Saturday, and let me tell you, there was not much snow at all. You'd have to do some scrambling from the saddle at the base of the face to get onto the ice below the face. The scramble you'd be above some cliff bands, which could be exciting. There was also a spot higher on the face where there was no snow at all. Â Have fun!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 well necro, since it snowed yesterday, of course there wasn't much on sunday  josh i see the whole nf of the summit pyramid from chilliwack, and i can see the whole damn west side of the mt from abbotsford looking up the nuttsack river valley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattp Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 I haven't seen it lately, nor have I done the climb at this time of year, but what Necro describes sounds just about like what I saw in my buddy's pictures taken on his late September or early October climb about ten years ago. He was pleased to have found what he described as "real ice climbing," and said the climb was not only worthwhile, but "pretty good" even though it looked like a dirty mess in his pictures. He was a strong technical climber, on both rock and ice, without a lot of alpine experience. I gathered that in his opinion bad rock and trashy scrambling was not too much of an issue, but you should know that perhaps he's tougher than some climbers because he didn't mention anything about the bushwack at all (I don't think it is that bad, but some people come away to report "I'd never do THAT again"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 mattp said: I haven't seen it lately, nor have I done the climb at this time of year, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necronomicon Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 The Direct Price Glacier would be even more entertaining. You could canoe across Nooksack Lake right to the base, and ice climb the whole way up. Â Dru: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PONCHO&LEFTY Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Today part of the mountain = http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=2055 It was cold up there today. I actually got out of my car for a few minutes and had to put my vest on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daylward Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Last Sat/Sun Colin and I climbed the Price Glacier by moonlight. We did not do the direct start. It looked dangerous. And difficult. And foolhardy. Â We shuffled over 200' of rock under Nooksack Tower, and stayed on ice the rest of the way. Routefinding was easer than expected, though the glacier is pretty broken. The part that worried us most was the final bergschrund, which appeared to be a 50' overhanging wall barricading the top-out, but once up there we found a ramp leading from the lefthand prow of the wall rightward with relative ease. There was evidence of new snow from precip earlier in the week, though it had largely consolidated by that time. The ice was good, not too rotten. Â Our descent was, um, wrong. To start, it began to rain at 4:00 am as we crested the route. Then we took one too many right turns going down, and ended up going down the hanging glacier to the right of the Curtis glacier and didn't realize it 'til we got to the hanging part (PONCHO&LEFTY's picture shows it I believe). We found a choss gully to bypass the hanging glacier and went down another small glacier & slabs, which were OK, but of course we ended up in the wrong valley, so we were relegated to 6 hours of the very finest of wet Cascade bushwhacking to make it out to the new ski lodge, and then a hitchhike to the Lake Ann trailhead. Â A very interesting first Shuksan experience for me! I'll have to do it again sometime though to tag the summit... Â -Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Quite an experience for your first time on Shuksan. I still need to get back and do that route after dropping a #$*(# crampon in a crevasse last November while trying it in *perfect* conditions. Â Does anybody actually do the "direct" start? At least from what I remember, you'd be crazy to try. The thing constantly calves and is entirely broken. I thought Necro was joking about a "direct" start but is it done? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necronomicon Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 One man's joke is another man's death wish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skykilo Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 We did a direct start up a chute from Price Lake trying to ski it in April, but I don't think I'd recommend it. A huge slide came down the pipe right after we exited on the way down. One man's death wish is another man's idea of getting piste off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Sorry, I should have clarified. I *have* heard of people going straight up from the lake in winter or early spring conditions. From pics and reports I've seen it's less steep with snow on it then when the ice fall is fully exposed. Sounds like it's nice and dangerous anyway tho... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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